In the manufacture of garments, pockets are provided as a means for conveniently carrying useful items such as currency, change, keys, a wallet, a handkerchief and the like. The pockets are integrated into the garment and take the general form of a pouch open at one end to receive such items.
The two basic types of pocket constructions are the patch-type pocket and the regular pocket. The patch-type pocket is secured to the outside surface of the garment and is typically utilized in garments having less formal or leisure applications. Patch pockets are relatively easily constructed and attached to a garment.
In contrast, the regular pocket is positioned inside the garment thereby presenting a much neater, finished appearance. An opening, usually a slot in the garment, provides access to the standard pocket. However, the regular pocket is relatively complicated in construction and has required numerous manual operations including material cutting, positioning, sewing and trimming. Such manual operations are time consuming and can contribute significant expense to the cost of manufacturing a garment. Since the garment industry is characterized by high volume production, it will be appreciated that the overall costs of constructing and finishing such pockets can be substantial.
In an attempt to improve upon the manual sewing techniques of the prior art, there has been increasing interest in the use of adhesive as a supplement or complete substitute for sewn stitches. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,293 to Joseph W. A. Off discloses a pocket construction wherein a garment panel and rectangular pocket blank are secured together and formed into a finished pocket through various folding and adhesive connection steps. Application Ser. No. (B7685), to Joseph W. A. Off and Judson H. Early discloses an apparatus for manufacturing prefabricated pocket bags like that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,293. Application Ser. No. (B7410), to Joseph W. A. Off and Judson H. Early discloses an apparatus for integrating prefabricated pocket bags into garment panels on a semi-automatic basis wherein each pocket bag and corresponding garment panel are clamped in a template and manually advanced between work stations of the apparatus, however, the production capability of this apparatus is somewhat limited. All of these inventions are assigned to Haggar Company of Dallas, Texas.
Although the adhesive pocket construction techniques developed thus far have proven satisfactory, a need has arisen for an apparatus for transporting and indexing sets of garment panels and prefabricated pocket bags between work stations to achieve greater rates of production.